Dark Water
by Kam97
Summary: On a tag-team scavenging mission in unfamiliar territory, Tara and Rosita suddenly find themselves at the mercy of Mother Nature. Things go from bad to worse, and they must stay grounded at all costs.
1. Chapter 1

5 miles.  
"Turn right"  
10 miles.  
"Turn left."

Those were the only words spoken for the first half of the trip. I had my hands on the wheel, and she had her hands on a crumpled city map. I knew we should have grabbed a few CD's from the stash back at the zone, but too bad so sad; we rode in silence. Until...

"Oh, wait wait, turn left there too!" She suddenly yelped, pointing through the windshield at a rusty stop sign.

As we passed it.

Well, good thing we were the only functioning car on the road for miles. And it'd be a shocker if there was another car! See, Rosita and I were the ones sent by Deanna to a new scavenging location. It's a shopping plaza or something, I think. I don't know. All we got was a map with a few dots on it. And normally, she'd have sent Glenn along with us, but he is still recovering from an injury to his leg. I overheard Maggie begging Deanna not to send him out with us tonight. I don't blame her; I think Glenn deserves a break, despite how amazing of a runner he is. But it's a shame Maggie, also an amazing runner, wasn't assigned to come along instead!

Not like Rosita and I can't handle ourselves, though. Obviously.

After spinning the car around and getting on the right road, Rosita finally said something different.  
"It's gonna be up ahead, according to this-" she shook the map in her hands, " -looks like it's located right after the next intersection. We'll hit this one, and then we'll do the one that's marked about 5 miles from here."  
"If we have time." I muttered, looking at the sky through the windshield; it was past 4:00 for sure. The sun was going to set soon. I didn't help that it was starting to get very cloudy. "We probably should have held this little trip off until the morning."  
"Maybe." She said.

Then soon enough, there was point A.  
And boy, was it intimidating.  
"A high school?" Rosita asked, sounding the hell does she want us to scavenge a school? Do we need sticky notes or something?  
"There's gotta be a good reason..." I said, parking the car on the side of the road, "And it can't be that overrun if she's confident that two people can handle what's inside."  
"I hope she's right..." Rosita put the map on the dashboard and cautiously stepped out of the car. From where we were, we could on see two or three walkers ahead of us, and they didn't seem agitated at all.

"We're clear, just keep things quiet." I said as I, too, stepped out of the car and met Rosita at the hatchback. We got our guns, our gear, and our empty bags(for what we find). I made sure we both had working head lamps(more effective than flashlights), and extra batteries, because with the sun now setting, it was pretty much set in stone that we'd be scavenging in the dark. It wasn't my favorite thing to do at all, but this was the mission we were given.

As we approached the school building, we could instantly tell that the place had seen some dark times. But it didn't look _too_ bad; there were no gaping holes in the walls or anything. There was just a lot of rotting bodies, and dried gore. Once we were at the main entrance, we saw more bodies piled on the stairway leading to the door. And that's when I looked up and got our first clue as to why Deanna sent us here.

A big sign above the door said, " _ **EMERGENCY EVACUATION HERE. REMAIN CALM AND REPORT TO THE GYMNASIUM.**_ "

"You think this place held up until everyone was rescued?" Rosita asked.  
"I don't think so." I moved a few limp bodies away from the door with my foot, "It looks like everyone was trying to run out all at once. Or get in."  
"So much for remaining calm." Rosita sighed. "Ready?"  
"Mmmhmmm."

We both lifted our guns up, and proceeded slowly though the unlocked doors. We were as quiet as we could because it was important to listen for walkers.

"This gymnasium is either going to be a gold mine, or a death trap." I whispered. "If it's not worth the struggle, or we need more numbers, we leave and come back some other time. Okay?"  
"We'll see." Rosita said. "There's also smaller areas of the school to check, you know."

We wandered the main hallway - looking for a sign or something to direct us to the gym. But the first thing we came across was the nurse's office, and we decided to check for first aid stuff in there.  
"Door's locked. We're gonna have to break it if we want in." I said, "Is it worth it?"  
"Yeah. If it's locked, that means no one's been inside for a while. Plus, we really need bandages, alcohol pads, and pain killers. We never have enough." Rosita walked across the hall and pulled a fire extinguisher out of it's case. "Stand back."

I moved away from the door, and Rosita began to bash the door handle with the fire extinguisher.  
One. Two. Three.  
It seemed like every time she swung the heavy tank down on the metal handle, it made more noise.  
Five. Six. _CRACK_.  
The handle broke off and the door opened. She took two steps inside, and whistled. Sure enough, we heard two walkers groan and walk towards us from the back of the room.  
"No guns. Just knives. You know the deal." She commanded; beating me to it. I already had my knife in my hand anyway.

When the two walkers could be seen in our flashlight rays, we both ran at them at once and drove our knives into their skulls. They both hit the ground, and we got a better look at them.  
"One's a nurse. The other must be a patient." I crouched down next to the nurse.  
"She must have locked herself in here knowing she'd turn." Rosita began to check the nurse's pockets, and I saw her smirk a little when she pulled out a large ring of keys. "But it looks like we won't be smashing anymore handles." She said, jingling the keys. "I'll go in and search, seeing as I know what we need from here... Wanna keep watch?" "Sure." I replied.

So I spent about 15 minutes standing by the door like a bouncer, listening to Rosita humming quietly and searching drawers in the office, and also listening for activity in the hallway.

"Hey, we've got some inhalers here!" She suddenly said, happily. "For Danny... poor kid can't run very far without one of these..." I heard her shove a handful of stuff in her bag and zip it close.  
"And-" Her footsteps grew louder, and suddenly she appeared in my flashlight's ray. "I found these." In her hand was an all too familiar, and all too important, blue package.

They were pads. Also known as: a fucking _miracle_.

We both chuckled a little, she put them back in her bag, and then said, "I think we're good here. If we have time, and room, we can come back for more... Have you heard any walkers?"  
I shook my head, "No, but I think I hear some rain out there."  
She paused to listen for it too, then said "I wouldn't worry it about that yet."

Continuing on, we came across many other classrooms before finding a long stretch of lockers - most of them opened. Several backpacks were on the floor, and there were water logged books and papers scattered about.  
But then, we saw one, lone body lying in the middle of it all a little ways down. He was dead, but still alive. Rosita approached him and drove a knife into his skull before he could even think to get up and bite one of us.

" _Yep, there was panic here_." I muttered, bending over to search a backpack. At first I thought it was all books until I zipped open a pocket and found an MP3 player with headphones. Half-charged.  
"Mine!" I said immediately, stuffing it in my pocket.  
"I hope it's full of terrible pop music." Rosita sneered, jokingly. She picked up a backpack of her own and dumped its contents onto the ground. There was nothing good, but we still took the empty backpack itself.

Next, we came across a half open locker covered in bumper stickers. Some were funny, some were offensive, sand some were funnily offensive. Once I opened it all the way, I was happy to find this really neat leather jacket.

"Ooh! Also mine!" I exclaimed, grabbing it and tossing it on over my t-shirt. It was a little big, but it still smelled like leather. Daryl's gonna be jealous! Plus, there was no way a walker could effectively bite through real leather this thick. It's like armor.

"Hey, don't worry, we'll find you one in the lost and found!" I chuckled, but Rosita didn't comment. Instead, she crouched down and picked a crumpled map of the school off the ground. Everything was color coded by highlighters; this was totally the work of a freshman.

"Sweet, now we've got keys AND a map." I said, "Things are looking good for us now!"  
"Uh-huh." She nodded, shining her flashlight on the paper. "So right now, we are here at room 108. The cafeteria is down the hall to the right. And the gym is way on the other side of the school, it looks like."  
"Okay, any other points of interest?" I asked.  
"No. That gym will have tons of supplies if no one has gotten to them yet. We gotta focus on that for the most part." Rosita explained. "But first, the cafeteria is worth checking."  
"Right." I said.

Getting into the cafeteria was no problem. One of the doors was open, and there were minimal bodies to step over. But once we were inside, we were met with something unpleasant.

"Jesus, it does NOT smell like corn dogs and tater tots in here-" I commented as the two of us covered our mouths and noses. It wasn't just the smell of the dead bodies that was bad(actually, we were pretty used to that), it was also the smell of whatever rotten food there was in the kitchen.  
"I don't know if we should check this. A couple cans of peas isn't worth this crap." Rosita muttered. Basically, she said what was originally on my mind. But I had a different idea.  
"We don't have to take any food out of here, you know." I replied, "there's other stuff. Follow me."

We proceeded to the back, where we found a bunch of plastic utensils and plates. Another seemingly random set of things that are actually pretty useful.

"Huh. Alright!" Rosita said, satisfied. She put them all in her bag. "Now, let's-"

 ** _BOOM_**!

Rosita and I dropped low as a massive wave of thunder came rolling in over the building - it was so wild, the tables in the cafeteria shook.  
"Holy _SHIT_!" I yelled, and then we both looked up at the ceiling as if we were looking for the storm.

Oh, there was one hell of a storm coming.

 ** _And one hell of a storm it would be._**


	2. Chapter 2

We were tucked in the corner of the cafeteria when the rain started smashing down on the roof above us. Would this place hold up? It must! It had to!

"Did we see any storm clouds when we were coming here!?" Rosita asked. "No?! Maybe!?"  
"Well, if this is anything like what hit when we were in that barn, we've got to get somewhere safer. Somewhere with no windows! Like, right now!" Rosita said frantically.

As more thunder came rolling in, we hustled back into the hallway which already had puddles growing underneath where the ceiling had a hole. Duct tape wasn't gonna fix this! This roof was fucked!

"Alright, now wait, either we find a closet to take shelter in and risk the roof collapsing on us. Or we make a mad dash for the car. You remember where we parked?"  
"Y-yeah, but-"

The thought of the two of us running out there in the storm, and the dark, scared me. And I was definitely panicking at this point. But Rosita seemed confident that it was a possible solution to our current dilemma. She was right about the roof; if this storm didn't pass in the next half hour, it could very easily crash down on us and we'd not only be potentially trapped, but we could easily be injured. And definitely soaked.

I must have been taking a long time to think it through, because suddenly Rosita grabbed my arm and boldly said, "If you aren't going to help me decide - I'll go with what I feel is best. And that's making a run for it."  
"Okay." I nodded, "Okay."  
"Alright then, we'll go out the main entrance. It's now or never. I have a feeling this isn't the worst of the storm, so we gotta go right now."  
"Yeah, it's just a little water, right?" I chuckled, nervously. She didn't find it funny. It wasn't supposed to be funny; just a different way of looking at running into a goddamn hurricane.

As we jogged through the halls kicking water up under our shoes, we could hear the wind whipping and whistling outside. Even though we made it to the main entrance in record timing, it was now pitch dark outside and there was no telling what was out there. We were about to rely on these head lamps now more than ever. Bumping into a walker out there would be bad news; but so would locking ourselves away in this decrepit school building.

I heard Rosita's breaths growing louder, and quicker. Panic hit me earlier, and panic was starting to hit her now.

"We're both royally fucked if we get separated. So you hold onto me for dear life, okay? I'll lead." I looked at her, and she grabbed my arm again. Tighter than before.

Thunder struck 2 seconds after lightning did; signaling that the storm was coming closer. And it was time to _run_.

" _Now now now!_ " Rosita gasped, " ** _Go_**!"

We both dashed through the doorway and pushed through the jungle that was the storm.

The wind was insane. And we were drenched in freezing rain within seconds. Neither of us could see a damn thing.

I was the first to start vocalizing how afraid I was; cursing and grunting. It was a struggle to stay standing, never mind moving, against the harsh wind. What felt like 5 minutes was only 5 seconds. And while we thought we were sprinting, we were just barely jogging - that's how strong the wind was.

All I could think of was how we had made a terrible decision.

"How close are we?" Rosita hollered. And even though she was right beside me, it was so hard to hear her. My heart was pounding out of my chest, and every time I tried to take a deep breath, water would fly into my nose and lungs. I couldn't even speak. 10 seconds felt like 10 minutes. I was drowning on land.

This was all a terrible idea.

"Tara!?" I heard her yell, and she shook my arm like a ragdoll. But I was mute. Absolutely mute. And nearly blind, too, with the steady stream of water dripping down my forehead and into my eyes. The head lamp did nothing - it just reflected off of the rain drops and made everything harder to focus on.

But I just kept pulling us along like a mule pulls a cart.

"Tara!?" She yelled again.  
Again, mute. But the car had to be up ahead! _It had to_! So I just kept pushing. And pushing.

That is, until something came _whipping_ past my head and I heard it hit Rosita.

Hard.

And then I felt all her weight pull down on my arm as she stumbled to the ground.


	3. Chapter 3

I don't know what happened exactly.  
I don't know what kind of strength it took.  
I don't know how I managed to get us to that car after something huge, possibly debris, left a terrible cut on Rosita's face.

Moments after she was hit, she was hunched over on her knees for a few seconds, holding both her hands over where she felt pain. I couldn't tell what it was by sight - her image was blurry because of all the water in my eyes, and all my headlamp did was let me see that she was definitely bleeding from somewhere.

"What is it? What hit you?" I asked her frantically, trying to get her to move her hands so I could get a better look.

But she'd gone mute like I had been moments before this, probably because she was stunned. Blinded. She just had one hand gripping her left eye, and she used her other hand to try to get up off the muddy ground.

And at this point, I think I became some sort of animal. Again, I don't know what kind of strength it was; but it was something I'd never felt before. I put my gun away, which may have been a big mistake, and I literally picked Rosita up off the ground like she was weightless. And then I charged forwards with her awkwardly positioned in my arms. She was kicking her legs around a little; possibly begging to be put down.

But none of that mattered to me, because the car was right up ahead. And we made it to the car alive. Rosita seemed to be coming back from her moment of being stunned when I placed her down on her feet again. She leaned up against the hood of the car, still touching her face, while I opened one of the side doors to the back seats.

"It's my eye... There's blood in my eye." she finally spoke, loud and clear. "I can't see shit right now."

"I'll look at it in a second." I said before I helped her get in the backseat, then crawled in behind her.

Once the door was shut, and the ceiling light in the car was turned on, I immediately wiped my face and got to work. I pulled Rosita's headlamp off her, and held it in my hand as a flashlight. What I saw was a lot of blood, all over her face, really. But it was all diluted by the rain water, and once she wiped her face clear with her shirt, I could see what we were dealing with.

"It's a good thing we gathered supplies from that nurse's station." I said.

"Why? Is it bad?" she asked.

"Not really." I replied, "I mean, it's a deep cut but it's not actually your eye. It's your eyebrow. ."

"That's a relief." She leaned back against the interior of the car; giving me more room to hover over her and patch up the small gash above her eye. It needed stitches, but the best thing we had in here was alcohol, a roll of gauze, and tape.

"But you know what's coming now, right?" I asked, preparing an alcohol pad. She nodded, and then I said. "It'll be over in 3 seconds"

As quick and effectively as I could, I dabbed the wound with the alcohol. I could see her grit her teeth, and she sure didn't look too pleased. But once I was done with the alcohol pad, I put a thick layer of gauze down on the wound, and taped it all down.

The worst was over now, or so I thought. Anything could go wrong from here. But now, we had time to breathe. I gave her the headlamp back, and we dug out a canteen of water. For a long, long time we just sat in the dim light taking turns with the canteen - breathing in, and out. The rain was loud on the roof, and both of us were trembling in the cold, damp air. And we were sick to our stomachs.

"Rosita?" I said. She must have dozed off in this short period of time, because she didn't reply until I tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hm? W-what?" Both her eyes were half shut, and she for someone who's normally very tan - she's was going pale. I hadn't seen her in a state like this before.

"I-I want to get us out of here _so_ bad... but there's _no way_ I can drive us back now." I admitted. And suddenly, I became emotional. "We'd get lost. We'd crash."

And when Rosita didn't reply, the tears started coming. "Oh my god, this was a mistake. A _big_ _fucking_ _mistake_." I shamefully sniffled like a baby; with my head hanging between my knees.

"No..." Rosita muttered, shaking her head, "You can't say that yet...We don't know what the school looks like now." She had her arms crossed, and had her head tilted backwards; looking up at the car light. "A mistake would be if we never made it to the car. Or if a tree had hit me in the face instead."

She was right. It could have been so much worse. I don't know what it feels like to have a building collapse on top of me, but I just might have found out if we stuck around in there. But with every wind gust that came by, the car shook slightly and the windows creaked. I flinched every time, because all I could imagine was debris flying through the windshield. Maybe the wind speed was enough to rip apart a walker. Maybe we'd see a disembodied arm come flying towards our car. Or a head. We had no idea what could happen next.

"H-hey-" Rosita muttered softly, her teeth audibly chattering; I could see her breath in the light - like smoke. I could see mine too. Which meant that it was getting colder by the second. "...Are you gonna try to stay awake... or are you clocking out?" She asked. I was wondering the same about her. Both of us would be in danger of hypothermia if we let our bodies go to sleep.

But all I could say to her question was, "I can't make any promises."

"I mean... I can't make promises either but-" she slowly began to slide right next to me, which I gladly let her do, even though it made me blush a little. "If we stay awake, and warm, we'll have a better shot of being able to make it through the night..." she then tucked her hair behind her ears... before tucking her head into the crook of my neck.

"I mean, I'll stay with you if you stay with me." I said to that, shrugging slightly.

Oddly enough, this was the most comfortable I'd been all night, despite how cold and wet her long hair felt on my skin. Something was incredibly satisfying about being able to hold each other right now. And I had a feeling we'd benefit from it in the long run.

But what she whispered to me next, put a smile directly on my face;

" _I think I'll stay a while, then_."


	4. Chapter 4

_((A.N. It's about damn time for a feel-good headcanon chapter. Enjoy.))_

It was a good thing the jacket I'd found earlier was large, because it fit perfectly over our backs. It took a while for it to start holding in what little body heat the two of us produced, but when it worked, it was so much better. Rosita and I's violent shivering had slowed down to a tremble with slow breaths. To keep our thoughts from deteriorating along with our bodies, I struck up conversation.

"What should we do tomorrow morning?" I asked. "Like, when we get home."

"Eat a big breakfast." was what she said.

And I found myself smiling again, because a really nice image popped into my head; an image of the two of us sitting around a table eating whatever we decided to have. I saw pancakes on our plates. And sun coming through the curtains in the house. You'd think I was thinking of a time before the world ended; maybe a sleepover with an old best friend. But I was thinking of tomorrow, because something sweet like that was still possible. We just had to be somewhere safe. And Alexandria, also known as "home", was safe. It's where all our friends lived too... also known as our family.

"Hey... did you have a best friend back before all this?" I then asked. But when she didn't reply, I felt bad. "Uh, sorry... if that's too personal to ask."

But Rosita shook her head - still resting on my chest. "No, don't worry, it's not too personal." She said, "I was just thinking of someone."  
"A friend?"  
Again, she shook her head. "My brother."  
"I didn't know you had a brother!"  
"Yeah, his name was Richard. He was older. Married. A father of three." She told me, "We were really close as kids, but got... distant... as we grew up... As it usually is..."  
I knew exactly what she meant, Lily and I were the same way. To be honest, the apocalypse was the thing that brought us back together.

"But would you consider him your best friend?"

"At least during my childhood." Rosita shrugged, "He picked on me a lot, but that's what toughened me up. I don't take any bullshit from guys, as you've probably seen in the time that you've known me."  
"Oh yeah." I chuckled, remembering the times where she's chopped down Abraham, Eugene, and even Glenn, for being ridiculous.

"But I just think about Richard sometimes; wondering how he'd do in a world like this." She sighed. "I didn't actually see him go... but I have every reason to think he died saving one, or all, of his kids."  
"Do you think he would have died saving you?" I asked.  
"No."  
Really?  
"He would live." She said, "I wouldn't let him die, nor would I need saving in the first place."  
Wow, I never of thought looking at that question that way.

"I wish it was like that with Lily..." I said, suddenly pulling the jacket tighter over us.  
"What do you mean?"  
"I wish I had the opportunity to save her... and still live. Even though I'd like to think I'd have given my life for her." I clarified, "But see, I really, really wish it wasn't one or the other, or neither, who gets to make it out alive in life-or-death situations. And I'm not just referring to Lily and I. I'm talking about Carol and Beth. I'm talking about Glenn and Noah. "  
"I know what you're talking about..." Her head was now almost resting on my stomach, and I had my left hand resting on her back. "But tonight... that's going to change... because tonight, either of us could have died back there. But you saved me when I got hit by leading us through the rain to the car. And whether or not either of us need to save the other at any point tonight, I'm sure both of us are going to make it out alive."  
Knock on wood.  
I just nodded along.

The car shook side to side in the wind again, and the rain hadn't gotten any softer.  
"You know, I wonder if they'll come looking for us..." Rosita was now officially laying in my lap.  
"I actually sort of hope they won't... for more reasons than one." I commented, "Driving in this shit would mean certain death. I'm positive."  
"Maybe they'll come after it all ends... but still before the morning." She suggested, starting to draw small circles with her finger on my knee - out of boredom.  
And seeing as she was so hopeful of Rick and the gang pulling up to save us, I decided I'd benefit from playing along too,  
"Yeah, that'd be nice." I said. "...We could sleep in the car on the way back, get into dry clothes, sleep more in warm beds, and then eat that big breakfast. I'm thinking pancakes."  
"-And peaches." She added.  
Boy, that got me hungry. We were dumb and didn't pack much food; seeing as we weren't supposed to stay here for the night. So what we did bring had to last us until we either drove home ourselves, or were rescued like Rosita said. And right now, it couldn't be any later than midnight, so we had a long time to go, and the storm definitely wasn't subsiding any time soon by the sounds of it.

We really needed something to happen to make us feel better about our current situation. And soon enough, one came.

"Whenever it rains like this, I always remember this one day in late July back when I was in high school-" Rosita began, "I used to ride horses. All the time. Richard did too. But this one day, I was at this gigantic county fair in Houston competing in the horse show-"

Wow, I never knew Rosita was a rider, either! But I imagined how pretty she probably looked riding a majestic horse through a field... I'd never actually ridden a horse, being a city kid. I just saw them in movies, and always had a thing for those country girls.

Rosita then continued her story, "Things were going really well - I was confident I'd win a blue ribbon. But a thunderstorm snuck up on the fair and unleashed this awful downpour in the middle of everything. My horse spooked, threw me, and I spent a good minute running around the ring trying to catch him while everyone else was ducking for cover."  
"Oh man, that sounded like it sucked." I said, sympathetic but intrigued. Somehow, the story was both sorta tragic, and sorta funny.  
"Yeah, and you know, I didn't care how hard it was raining or how much mud was on that ridiculous riding jacket I was wearing - all I cared about was catching my horse before he tripped and got hurt. He was a bumbling idiot, but I loved him."  
"What was his name?" I asked.  
"Rojo... Even though he was black and white." Rosita replied, "The farm I learned to ride at rescued him from a slaughter auction, then trained him for 3 years before my Dad bought him from them for my 15th birthday."

This made me laugh a little, "See, and I got a hamster for my 15th birthday."  
"Really?" I heard Rosita chuckle.  
"Yep. I didn't even want a hamster. I wanted a dog." I explained, "So I named him Mr. Chubbs, and had him for a few weeks before he chomped on my finger so hard that I needed two stitches."  
"What happened then?" she asked.  
"My Mom apologized for thinking hamsters made good pets, and then we gave him away to my cousin. I never saw Mr. Chubbs ever again."

For the first time, I heard Rosita actually laugh. Like, a loud, sincere laugh. And of course, that had me cracking up too.  
"Poor Mr. Chubbs!" she laughed.  
"More like Tara's poor finger!" I exclaimed, sticking out the pointer finger on my right hand - but it was too dark for either of us to see the little scar that was still on it. "And poor you for falling off your horse. That probably hurt more." I added.  
"Oh no, not 'poor me'. I've fallen off so many times. It just happened to be in the middle of a downpour that time." She lifted her head off my lap for a few second to stretch her neck, and then she put her head back down. "But like I said, every time it pours, I always remember the panic I felt running around in that ring."

"Was the rest of the day fun, at least?" I asked.  
"Yeah, I brought Rojo home, got changed, and then spent the rest of the night at a diner nearby with my friends from the barn because the fair had been shut down." Rosita explained, "I must have retold that story at least 5 times that night. But that was alright with me... because every time, it was easier to make light of it. What started as a terrible accident, became _something worth laughing about in the end_."

I had to say it. "...You mean like tonight?"

"Yeah..." she replied, over the sound of the rain on the roof. "Like tonight."


	5. Chapter 5

Even though we were able to share a moment of relaxation, and happiness, things were still deteriorating... now more than ever. The air in the car was thick, and stuffy, simply from us being in there. Basically, breathing was beginning to become difficult because we'd be breathing so long. The windows would have to open soon if we wanted any fresh oxygen. And the lack of fresh oxygen in the car was now one of the main contenders to Rosita and I's desperation to just give up and go to sleep. The other main contender, was of course, the decrease in our body temperatures; we were both back to violently shivering even though we were huddled(her head still on my lap) under the large jacket.

Talking became one of the few things we could do to fight physical fatigue, even though we soon noticed that talking increased mental fatigue. We were getting dumber by the hour, and weaker by the minute, really. The sound of the storm was slowly driving us insane; because it wasn't getting any quieter.

We went from talking in detail about our personal lives, to telling fictional stories to each other because remembering things that actually happened became a chore in our decreased state of wellness.

"There was this old house in Texas-" she said, pausing a long time to make something up about the house, "That all these rats lived in. And then these people moved in... to find that the rats were really serious about living there too."  
And suddenly I found myself adding to what was _supposed_ to be her story.  
"The people tried to kill the rats, but the rats killed them instead." I muttered, "With poison. And spike traps."

I didn't know what I was saying. We'd been going back and forth for two hours with made-up bullshit that progressively got darker. And darker.

"They took one of them in the basement... the girl." Rosita piped in. "But they didn't kill her."  
"Why?" I asked, slowly rubbing my hands together so I wouldn't lose feeling in them.  
"They tied her up... and they made her sit in a pool of dark water... so she couldn't see them climbing all over her body."

I didn't say anything, because I could feel Rosita gripping my shirt and holding the damp fabric up to her face. What she said next was almost inaudible because I think she was crying now, but it was the most realistic thing to be said in a long time.  
"Oh my god, why are we here?" was what she sobbed loudly into my shirt, and that got my heart racing.

Because soon after she said that, I no longer heard the rain they way it was supposed to be heard; it was less of a patter and more of a screech with every drop that landed on the roof. Every once in a while, my mind would trick me into seeing something I wasn't seeing - like claw marks on the windows, and blood on my hands. It must have been Rosita's mentioning of the rats climbing and crawling in the dark, because I did occasionally feel something crawling on me.  
So the first time I felt the crawling, I just forced myself to believe that it was the water droplets on my hair and clothes. The second time, I asked Rosita if she was touching my legs - she wasn't. She was frozen. Completely still. And then the third time I felt the crawling, I began to scratch at my skin raw for as long as I could bear it; everything inside me was screaming for mercy.

When the pain of scratching was too much, I was forced to stop. I shook Rosita's body; desperate to hear her talk again even if all she had to say was something morbid. But she didn't move, and I feared that she'd given in. I leaned over her and tried to look her in the eyes, but it was so dark. So, so dark. I couldn't see if she was awake. I couldn't even hear her breathing over the endless, screeching of the storm, so I didn't even know if she was alive at this point.

" _P-please_..." was the last thing I said before I too, gave in.


	6. Chapter 6

" ** _Woah, woah, woah! There's the car!_** "

I found myself laying horizontally on the seat when I heard the muffled voices shouting and running. Then soon enough, I saw a harsh, blinding light shine through the window on my left.

"Oh gosh, they're in there, Rick!" A woman said.

Rick? _Rick_! Thank god!

"Get 'em out. 'They hurt?" I heard Rick ask.  
"They don't look bit... but they sure don't look too good." she muttered.

The left door of the car popped open, freezing cold air rushed in, and my hand lifted up above my eyes to shield myself from the bright lights. Suddenly, I remembered. Rosita!  
I looked over at her just in time to see the other door pop open, and a familiar red haired man scoop her up. "I'll bring her right to the car, she's out cold." He said.  
Then I looked back over to where the lights came from, and saw two hands reaching in and touching my shoulders; there was a wedding ring on one of the hands.

"Hey, Tara. You wakin' up now?" said the woman who the hands belonged to, "We're gettin' you two outta here, stay with me for a minute."  
I nodded. And she sat me up before I took both of her hands and she helped me out of the car.

This is when I noticed that it wasn't raining so hard - it was only sprinkling. Finally, it seemed, the storm had subsided.  
"Hey, what scratched up your arms like that?" I suddenly heard her ask with concern in her voice. I looked at my forearms and indeed saw the little scratches; and remembered why.  
"I-I did..." I answered, my throat feeling very dry - like I'd been screaming all night. Shivering, I clarified. "I-I scratched them myself, I was-..."  
" _Ssssh_." That's when she tossed a blanket around my shoulders, and tried to get me walking. But my legs were just too damn weak and I nearly collapsed.

Suddenly, someone approached the two of us. It was Rick.  
"I got her, Maggie. Thanks. Go help Abraham with the car door." He said, lifting me up off the ground. I didn't like being picked up, but I had no choice. I was just happy to be out of that nightmare.

Once I had been put in the 'rescue' car, I was happy to see that Rosita was sitting up on her own in the back - awake. She was also sporting a warm blanket around her shoulders. Maggie helped me get in the middle seat, before climbing in next to me. So that put me in a comfortable position between her and Rosita.  
As for the other two, Abraham was in the passengers seat with his flashlight shining on a map, and Rick soon hopped in the driver's seat and started the car.

"So, you gonna tell us what happened?" Abraham asked once the car was in motion. "Looks like you two were real screwed back there!"  
But before I could strain myself to tell what I remembered, Maggie butted in. "Why don't we let them rest?"  
Abraham frowned, and looked at Rick. But Rick agreed with Maggie, "We'll talk about it tomorrow. Let's just be glad we got 'em out alive."

It was a relief to not have to talk about anything. I looked at Rosita, who's eyes were surprisingly still open. I'd have thought she would have gone back to sleep. But she was looking at me, too. And when I looked down at her leg, I saw her hand inching closer and closer to me.

That's when I took Rosita's hand in mine, and we both sat there happy to be holding each other again. I thought I saw Maggie smile a little out of the corner of my eye too, but I was totally focused on one girl right now. And as Rosita gripped my hand a little tighter, I heard her whisper to me, " _I told you_."

Then we both smiled, and happily went to sleep.


End file.
